


The Journal

by joshlerhoe



Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Abuse, Alternate Universe - No Zombie Apocalypse, Diary/Journal, Drug Use, M/M, Molestation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Underage Drinking, Underage Sex, dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-20
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2019-01-20 07:40:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12428058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joshlerhoe/pseuds/joshlerhoe
Summary: Rick Grimes stumbles upon an old journal in a tackle box hidden up in a tree stand. Never did he expect to find the drunken writings of a boy from nearly 20 years ago.





	The Journal

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting this little intro/teaser for feedback, so please comment!!! Is this something anyone would be interested in reading? Does it sound too been there done that? I just want to know what you guys think so I know where to go from here.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> P.S. I already have a lot of the journal entries finished and I've been drinking a lot to try and emulate how a drunk person writes so there's dedication for you guys right there

Alexandria wasn’t anything like King County.

The sun never shined. Not even so much as a filter through the clouds, always ready to pour blankets of rain at a moment’s notice. It was cold too, especially for September, the wind always carrying the icy chill of a harsh, early winter.

The town had felt like a jail cell as soon as Rick had crossed the threshold, this sensation of always being watched and like everyone had an agenda whenever they’d ask him anything or so much as glance in his direction.

The first day he walked into the school, the lady in the office gave him this look he couldn’t figure out, like she knew something about him that even he didn’t, her eyes sharp and calculating, like a hawk to its prey. And when she passed him his class schedule, long yellowing nails scraping along his hand, she bid him an eerie greeting, voice thick and rough with years of cigarettes and gossip, lips twisted in a sneer.

“Welcome to Alexandria Rick Grimes.”

 

That was over a month ago, and it still felt the same as it did on his first day.

The other students still whispered and pointed at him, like an outsider or a snake in the nest. The secretary still looked him up and down each time he walked through the doors, hawk eyes raking up and down his body, sending a deadly shiver up the column on his spine. 

He kept to himself, feeling as much of an outsider as everyone else thought of him as. Not a single friend, acquaintance, or even knowledge of anyone’s name.

He didn’t want a life here.

This place was void of that.

 

The only reprieve Rick found from the watchful and weighted eyes of the citizens was in the woods at the edge of town, just past the memorial park. It was secluded, quiet, and just the place to go when his parents got into a fight, whether it be over his father’s demanding job, their money troubles, or Rick’s inability to assimilate the way they had, refusing to resort to their ways of gossip and slander.

His parents didn’t know about his trips into the woods, and if they did, they didn’t seem to care, completely unaware of the inner workings of their son’s life, too self absorbed in their own grievances to care.

And it was out there in the woods that Rick would find something that would change him, an echo from a past long forgotten or never known.


End file.
